Marianne Faithfull - This Little Bird (1993)

The first giveaway that this compilation was not put together with the highest of budgets: the artist's name is misspelled "Faithful" on the cover. It's a random assortment of 1964-67 cuts, only two of which were hits ("This Little Bird" and "Come and Stay With Me"). In general it illustrates, no doubt inadvertently, the directionlessness of her early career -- folk standards, folk-rock, and covers of Donovan, Phil Spector, and the Mamas and the Papas were all fair game. Some of this stuff isn't easy to come by on reissues, like her flop single cover of "Blowin' in the Wind," the Jackie DeShannon song "You Can't Go Where the Roses Go," and the gorgeous B-side "The Morning Sun." And the music as a whole isn't bad, either, so the collection does have some value. It's just that the selection is too haphazard, and the packaging too threadbare, to make it definitive of her '60s work; try ABKCO's Marianne Faithfull's Greatest Hits for that.~This Little Bird Review by Richie Unterberger